Shutters are a high quality interior window treatment, having a combination of style, functionality and elegance that sets them apart from other window coverings. Shutters provide warmth in the winter and protect from damaging heat and sunlight in the summer. Shutters also provide complete control of view, privacy and light. Conventional shutters are made of an indigenous wood such as popular, oak or ash. The shutter components are typically assembled using doweling, screws and staples. After assembly, the shutters are stained or painted.
The basic shutter manufacturing process described above may have been in use for hundreds of years or more. This process, however, has various disadvantages. Shutters manufactured using a xe2x80x9ccoat after assemblyxe2x80x9d method are costly to produce, and conventional finishes used in the shutter industry, such as spray paint, can scratch, mar, and smudge during the assembly process, rendering pre-coating impractical. Further, indigenous woods are relatively expensive, and shutters manufactured from indigenous woods are costly to prepare for assembly and are not amenable to modern coating processes. In addition, conventional coatings on indigenous wood are easily damaged during installation and use and are difficult to clean.
To overcome some of these disadvantages of conventional shutters, a shutter according to the present invention is finished before assembly. This prefinishing process uses laminates that resist damage during and after assembly and that are easy to clean using standard household products. The lamination processes are largely automated and performed in bulk, reducing manufacturing time and costs. The shutter according to the present invention also utilizes a composite, manufactured wood made of medium density fiberboard (MDF) material. MDF is a less expensive material than indigenous wood and less costly to prepare. MDF has a suitable surface for modern laminates and is durable enough during assembly to allow prefinishing.
Attempting to assemble shutters from MDF utilizing conventional attachment techniques, such as dowels, screws and staples, however, is problematic due to the tendency of MDF to crack and split. Further, MDF warps and bows with a degree of deflection dependent on the size of the material used. As a result, large, unsightly gaps can develop in installed shutters made from MDF. These inherent problems with MDF have been a barrier to the use of MDF in the shutter industry.
To overcome the disadvantages of MDF shutter construction, a shutter according to the present invention utilizes tongue and groove construction for assembly of shutter components, significantly reducing the cracking and splitting of the MDF material. Further, the shutter is constructed with a louver tension control that also functions as a frame stabilizer, significantly reducing the warping and bowing of the MDF material. Advantageously, the tongue and groove assembly and the frame stabilizer allow shutters to be constructed with thinner than conventional material, further reducing costs. In addition, links for attaching a tilt bar with louvers are inserted using predrilled holes and glue rather than a conventional staple gun, also reducing the cracking and splitting of the MDF material. These assembly techniques allow MDF to be used as the primary material, overcoming inherent problems to achieve the end result of a quality shutter.
One aspect of the present invention is a shutter manufacturing method comprising the steps of applying a first laminate to a surface of a substrate to form a laminated sheet and cutting the laminated sheet to a predetermined width to form a laminated board. Further steps are milling an edge of the laminated board to form a milled edge and applying a second laminate to the milled edge. Additional steps are cutting the laminated board to a predetermined length to form a prefinished shutter component and assembling the prefinished shutter component into a shutter. In one embodiment, the substrate is medium density fiberboard (MDF), the first laminate is a hot roll laminate of decorative paper, and the second laminate is a heat transfer foil. An alternative additional step may be threading an anchor into the pin hole. In yet another embodiment the substrate is medium density fiberboard (MDF), the first laminate is a hot roll laminate of decorative paper, and the second laminate is a heat transfer foil.
Another aspect of the present invention is a shutter manufacturing method comprising the steps of forming a plurality of shutter components from a common substrate, laminating the component faces with a first laminate and the substrate edges with a second laminate so as to create a plurality of prefinished shutter components, and assembling the prefinished shutter components within a shutter frame. The laminating step comprises the substeps of applying a hot roll paper laminate on the faces and applying a heat transfer foil on the edges. In one embodiment, the shutter components are louvers and a further step is applying a heat transfer foil to the louver ends.